The site has been under heavy fire today from the right-wing Cheeto Commandos who periodically try to close it down with various acts of cyber-terrorism — all in the name of freedom, of course. But now we’re back again. This may happen more frequently as the site gets more readers; so if you ever come by and find yourself locked out, do keep checking in until we’ve flushed the Bushlickers from the system. We’ll try to make it worth the wait.

Here’s a blast from the not-so-distant past: a story of electoral theft, mysterious death and the ruthless determination of the Bush gang to do anything — anything — to stay in power. A revisit seemed appropriate during this week when it is becoming ever more apparent that the spinally-challenged Senate Democrats are going to kid-glove the handmaiden of presidential dictatorship, Samuel Alito, into a pivotal seat on the Supreme Court, where he will be able to further his master’s authoritarian ambitions while also advancing the agenda’s of Bush’s double-barrelled “Base”: religious extremism and rapacious corporatism. There will be more about

Orginally published in The Moscow Times, April 8, 2005

Let’s face facts: the game is over and we – the “reality-based community,” the believers in genuine democracy and law, the heirs of Jefferson and Madison, Emerson and Thoreau, the toilers and dreamers, all those who seek to rise above the beast within and shape the brutal chaos of existence into something higher, richer, imbued with meaning – have lost. The better world we thought had been won out of the blood and horror of history – a realm of enlightenment that often found its best embodiment in the ideals and

“How best to govern the state? First rectify the language.” – Confucius

And how best to corrupt the state? First corrupt the language. Salman Rushdie takes up the cudgels against the polluters of thought in the Bush Regime – the heir and extenders of a long, dishonorable tradition. Here are some excerpts, from the Sydney Morning Herald (via Buzzflash):

Beyond any shadow of a doubt, the ugliest phrase to enter the English language last year was “extraordinary rendition”. To those of us who love words, this phrase’s brutalisation of meaning is an infallible signal